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Question:
Where and how do I buy a Gardener's Color Wheel?
Answer:
We have a growing network
of retailers that carry The Gardener's
Color Wheel. Click on resellers on
this website for the current list of retailers and check back as
we update it often! Be sure to encourage your favorite garden supply
store to carry The Gardener’s
Color Wheel. You can also purchase
the wheel online at this website
using your credit card or print out an order
form and mail your
check. Retailers or wholesalers are encouraged to call or email
us for more information about becoming a reseller.
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Question:
What plants should I use to create my color schemes?
Answer:
The purpose of The Gardener’s Color Wheel is to help you learn
about color, plan your garden, and chose color combinations Since
the choice of plants for your garden varies by plant type (annual,
perennial, etc) and the particular zone you live in, we suggest that
you check with your local
nursery, master gardeners, university extension
office, or other local resources.
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Question:
Where do I get additional help in choosing colors for my
garden?
Answer:
Read the informative article by clicking "instructions" on
this website. Another fine source for using color in the garden is
The
Gardener's Palette by
Sydney Eddison.....available NOW from this
web site. Your professional nurserymen and women can guide you to
the plants you want after you choose your color schemes using The
Gardener’s Color Wheel.
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Question:
Why do the red and pink on the wheel appear to have a yellow
tint?
Answer:
The Nature and Limitations of Printed Color Wheels and Color Charts
In her excellent book for artists, Exploring Color: How to use
and control color in your painting, Nita Leland offers the following
advice to art students purchasing paints: "Don't depend on
printed color charts; ask your dealer to show you charts with painted
chips whenever possible."
There is a built-in limitation that
affects all printed color charts and color wheels. Unlike painters,
who use red, yellow, and blue to mix all the colors of the rainbow,
printers "construct" the colors you see on printed products
from cyan, yellow, magenta and black. Therefore, while lots of
colors can be constructed, they often are not as accurate as we
would like.
Both our artist's color wheel and the new color wheel
for gardeners constructs the red from magenta and yellow, then
creates a pink by the removal of pigment, therefore the yellow
is apparent. Unless all the colors are individually selected and
added to the wheel, this will always be the case. If we had selected
the colors individually, continuity around the wheel and within
the wheel would not be possible.
The red on both the artist's color
wheel and The Gardener's Color Wheel has a strong orange cast,
which, of course, affects the pinks as well. However, all that
any color wheel can do is serve as a guide to the relationships
between colors--their likenesses and their differences. In the
world of horticulture there are hundreds of slightly different
reds and pinks, far too many for any color wheel. Nevertheless,
by comparing any given red or pink to the color wheel, it should
be possible to say roughly where it belongs. For example, the red
of an American Beauty rose belongs toward the blue side of the
color wheel; the fiery red of oriental poppies belongs on the yellow
side. An orchid-pink strongly leans in the direction of blue; a
coral-pink, in the direction of yellow.
While this explanation
does not make up for the absence on our color wheel of a pure red
and its related tints, we hope you will better understand the limitations
of any printed color chart. Nor can an inexpensive device, like
The Gardener's Color Wheel, do 'the same job as the Royal Horticultural
Society Colour Chart, which consists of 884 separate color chips
at a cost of one hundred and thirty-five pounds sterling.
Notwithstanding
their limitations, color wheels have been in constant use by artists
and art students for 231 years. What works for artists can work
for gardeners. Study colors in relation to the wheel, learn where
they belong, then look at neighboring colors to find harmonies
and at colors from across the wheel to find contrasts. Contrast
and harmony. These are two of the fundamental principles of any
art form from gardening to painting to commercial art.
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